Massive wildfires that swept through entire neighborhoods and displaced thousands of people in Los Angeles have killed at least 10 people, authorities said, as California National Guard soldiers prepared to take to the streets to help quell the fire. disorder.
News of the rising toll, announced Thursday night by the Los Angeles County medical examiner, came as parts of America’s second-largest city lay in ruins.
A major firefighting operation continued into the night, reinforced by helicopters dropping water thanks to a temporary lull in the winds, even as new fires continued to emerge.
In response to reports of looting, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said an overnight curfew was planned and the state National Guard was available to patrol affected areas.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the service members were part of a deployment of thousands of state troops.
“We are putting everything at our disposal, including members of our National Guard, to protect communities in the coming days,” he said. “And to those who want to take advantage of evacuated communities, let me be clear: looting will not be tolerated.”
Luna said his officers were patrolling evacuation zones and would arrest anyone who should not be there.
But with such a large area ravaged by fires, evacuees feared not enough was being done and some took matters into their own hands.
Nicholas Norman staged an armed vigil at his home after seeing suspicious characters in the middle of the night.
“I did the classic American thing: I went to get my shotgun, I sat there and I turned on a light to let them know there were people there,” he said. AFP.
‘Death and destruction’
The largest of multiple fires has burned through nearly 20,000 acres (8,800 hectares) of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, while another fire around Altadena has burned 13,700 acres.
Firefighters said they were beginning to bring the Pacific Palisades fire under control, with six percent of its perimeter contained, meaning it cannot spread any further in that direction.
But after a pause, the winds returned and new fires continued to break out.
One of them exploded near Calabasas and the wealthy enclave of Hidden Hills, home to celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, late Thursday.
The Kenneth Fire swept through nearly 1,000 acres in a matter of hours, forcing more people from their homes, and more than 180,000 are now displaced.
US President Joe Biden said at a White House briefing that he had pledged additional federal funds and resources to help the state cope with the “most…devastating fire in California’s history.”
Unlike Tuesday, when the multifaceted disaster came to life and 100-mile-per-hour winds grounded all planes, firefighters were able to maintain a steady stream of sorties.
But a Super Scooper, an amphibious plane that dumps hundreds of gallons of water at a time, was grounded after colliding with a drone.
Although no one was injured, the Federal Aviation Authority said it was investigating the incident and warned that anyone flying drones in fire areas could be jailed for a year.
Some of those forced to leave their homes began returning Thursday to find scenes of devastation.
Kalen Astoor, a 36-year-old paralegal, said her mother’s home had been saved from the inferno’s seemingly random and chaotic destruction. But many other households had not.
“The vision now is one of death and destruction,” he said. AFP. “I don’t know if anyone will be able to come back for a while.”
‘Critical’
Meanwhile, a AFP The flyover of Pacific Palisades and Malibu, some of the most expensive real estate in the world and home to celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Anthony Hopkins and Billy Crystal, revealed desolation.
On Malibu’s highly coveted beachfront parcels, the skeletal structures of the buildings indicated the lavish scale of what has been destroyed.
Multimillion-dollar mansions have completely disappeared, apparently swept into the Pacific Ocean by the force of the fire.
In the Palisades, road networks that until Tuesday were lined with impressive homes now look like makeshift cemeteries.
For millions of people in the area, life was upended: Schools were closed, hundreds of thousands lost power, and major events were canceled or, in the case of an NFL playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Minnesota Vikings, they moved to another place. .
Forecasters warn that “critical” wind and drought conditions, although they have diminished, are not over. A National Weather Service bulletin said “significant fire growth” was likely to continue “with new or ongoing fires” through Friday.
Wildfires occur naturally, but scientists say human-caused climate change is altering the climate and changing fire dynamics.
Two wet years in Southern California have given way to a very dry one, leaving a lot of fuel dry and ready to burn.
